-pierre desire henry



UNITED sTaTEs PATENT onirica.

`.PIERRE DESIRE HENRY, oF NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA.

HYDRAULIC WHEEL FOR RAISING WATER I specification of Letters Patent No. 1,930, dated January 9, 184i.

To all wiz-0m t may concern.'

Be it known that I, P. D. HENRY, of the city of New Orleans, State of Louisiana, have invented a new and Improved Hydraulic lVheel for *Draining or for Raising lVater from a Low Placeor Reservoir to a Higher One; and I do hereby declare that' empties it .into a duct or gutter, by which it is carried off; said scoops, valves and compartments being so combined as to produce the most powerful and useful effect;

To describe the wheel more minutely I will suppose one (N, E, B, drawing) six feet iii diameter, agreeably to which the other parts of the machine would be as follows: thethickness of the wheel at the circumference 2% inches, (say from a to b, in drawings;) the thickness at the center 6 inches (say from C, to D, in the drawings;) so that the wheel will swell or bulge o-ut from the circumference increasing in thick` ness to the center or axle, the sides of the wheel to be closed up water tight so as to leave an opening or inner circle C, F, D, vacant, two feetl in diameter; the inner circle is formed by a number of pieces jointed together so as to form said circle which is joined with the outer circumference by connecting pieces mortised into said circle and said outer'circumference. The portion of the wheel so closed up is to be equally divided into thirty two sections or compartments by means of water-tight partitions formed of substantial grooved bo-ards, which partitions shall extend from the circumfer ence of the' wheel -to the circumference of said inner circle. Said partitions are represented in the drawing by the lines S, K, H, I, J, C, and are placed so as to deviate (taking the connection of any one of them with the other circumference as a focus) about sixteen degrees from the line of the radius in angle T N U, or in other words so that the length of each partition shall be two feet five inches and shall terminate atl one foot. From the center the wheel is intended to be vturned in the direction in which the arrows,

ebb and empty it.

lturns with the axis.

circumference, to each of the openings of the compartments, except eight, are affixed common valves or flaps, on hinges (as in the drawing represented by C, F, K, Z, and the like) 6% inches long by 2% inches broad,

which are hinged so das to open inside, and the hinges are to be placed on that side of the opening nearest to the direction in which the wheel is intended to turn eight of the 32 compartments are chosen equidis-tant, and are to be closed water tight at the cir cumferenee except a hole (0 o 0 o represented in the drawing) on the side of the rim, so that four of the holes will open on one side of the wheel and four on the other near the rim; to each of saidY holes is to be applied a scoop or spoon a distinct projection of which is represented by a gooddraftsman and marked Figure X in the rawing in the form of an oblong box 62C inches high 2% inches broad and 20%E inches long, parallel with the circumference and open at one end in the direction of Ithe motion of the wheel. By this arrangement and combination the valves are opened as they descend into the water and close as they rise above the lowest point, thus retaining the greatest quantity of water; and by the inclination of the compartments or tubes, they are enabled to hold the water until it is raised above the center where the duct or gut-ter K L is placed. These valves work peculiarly well when the water is abundant, but when the water isshallow the spoons are most useful, as they catch up the water even at the lowest This the compartments or 'tubes empty into the gut-ter in the same manner, so that by this arrangement the machine is always efiicient and does a good quantity of work and empties the place to be drained in the shortest period of time.

The greater thickness o-f the wheel near the inner circle is to afford an aperture on that side, equal to that of the valves at the circumference making up in width what each aperture necessarily loses in height.

The wheel is fixed to the axis, so that it It is fixed to the axle by means of four iron claws projecting from the wheel'and represented by M-N in the drawing and screwed to the wheel at the point N it is propelled by steam c-r manual power applied to the axle in any of the common modes by crank tooth wheel or band.

The wheel may be made of any size in j or about the proportions above described.

In large Wheels the number of compartments should be increased, so that the valves should not be too large. In places Where the water is always deep the spoons need not be used. In places Where thewater is always shallow the number of spoons should be increased to sixteen, viz., eight on each side; and on larger Wheels proportionally.

yI call attention particularly to the application and arrangement of the valves the l scoops or spoons, the inclination of the tubes,

the swell of the Wheel toward the direction in which the Wheel is turned and the height to which the Water is raised (i. e., above the center) all niost of which when examined.

and understood will be found to be peculiar to this Wheel.

That I claim as'my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent:

The tangential manner in which I arrange the tubes for conducting the Water to the' gutter 1n combination with the valves gov-A erning inletv of the tubes, also in combination therewith the spoons for scooping the Water up when the basin is loW in the said hydraulic Wheel for draining or raising Water.

, PIE. DRE. HENRY. IVitnesses:

I. I. HIBERT, G. BREETHE. 

